fiddlecollector

Try saying that your using it to sharpen tungsten electrodes for tig welding,may be more successful than saying your putting it on violins which they probably wouldnt understand.

Its ridiculous in the uk that you cant buy potassium nitrite or nitrate freely in small quantities in the UK ,but you can easily buy stuff like potassium bromide on ebay.

A late friend of mine owned a Strad, but played a Maggini. He loaned the Strad out.

Nice bow ,obviously needs work. But i looks more like the wood Raffin etc... would describe as bois exotique ,common on French bows of the 19th century. Probably originally had an ivory/bone button going by the end of the tang of the screw.

This appears to be pernambuco

Frog could be by a member of the Simon family but not sure.

Its quite common to have a strange fit on these vuillaume style seatings even amongst the top French makes.

Its probably a natural defect in the stick, it may have not had any repairs . cracks like this can be present in pernambuco whilst making bows and often are only visible when heated to camber the bow, they can be very problematic if they are going right through the stick or especially if they are running out at a angle . This looks perfectly straight with no run out. Ive seen bows by top French makers like Peccatte which appear to have had these type of defects from new but they are usually visible on the top or hair side of the stick. What direction is the grain running in the wood ,usually visible on the back of the head ? It is more usual in the bows ive seen to have cracks in this direction. See pic. It may be troublesome if you get it recambered .

Is it visible on the other side of the stick?

Yes main cause if ferrule flat has rounded . This can be remedied by flattening the ferrule usually by hammering on a mandrel carefully to harden and flatten the ferrule(often requires a very slightly concave mandrel. OR making the wedge curved to exactly match the curve of the ferrule if its not too curved. The ferrule is usually flat on most bows but i have an original Pajeot frog that is sort of experimental and it has a slight curve to the usually flat part. I see slight wear to the left of the tongue in the photos, like a little bit has broken away but it shouldnot effect the hair as the hair shouldnt be sitting on that surface.

The leather on the handle is often to simply protect the brand from wear ,so wonder whats under it. It looks German from around 1880-1920 era

Did you tell Rampal and other experts ,where you bought it before asking???

Would need more photos but reminds me more of Joseph Henry

i suspect the name is like Hoggard, there seems to be a lot of Hoggards in Bridlington at the time.

Looks like typical made in a hurry Morizot freres bow from around 1950's